I sympathize with Jeffy on this one — and for all I’ve said about the guy, I do love the fact that he speaks his mind all the time — but after reading everything I could find about this whole G-20 thing, I don’t know that there were any better choices.

As Richard Griffin points out in the Toronto Star, the real problem here was not making this decision earlier. Griffin notes that “the Jays have been blithely selling tickets for the games, right up
until Monday afternoon, as if they were still going to be played at the
Rogers Centre.”

Poor form, yes, but the ultimate outcome of it is probably the best that can be made of a bad situation.

I don’t know what’s worse, being a whiny Brave or a whiny ex-Brave on the Mets. Is it fair the Phils get 3 extra home games? Definitely not. Will it matter when they’re 8 games up in the East in the last week of September. Definitely not.

Phillies home record this year: 10-6 Away record: 10-6
Phillies home record 2009: 45-36 Away record: 48-33
Phillies home record 2008: 48-33 Away record: 44-37
There’s no real difference in their performance playing away from Philly. They may even play better.
You know what the weird thing is? The only franchise in the NBA this year with a better away record than home record was…the 76ers. Guess philly players don’t like playing in philly.

Definitely sounds like a whiny Met. Seriously, when each team plays 82 home games, do 3 extra ones really matter that much? Plus, it’s not like the Phillies pushed for this. It was a league decision, and the league’s hand was forced by the higher powers that be. I guess I’m just being an “insecure Phillies fan”.
Captcha: Carter’s torrance… Joe Carter, anyone?

When there are 14 other venues that could be used that weekend, I fail to see how this is the best option. I don’t care if they play it in Pittsburgh and five people show up. They are clearly favoring money over integrity here. It’s a joke, plain and simple.

If Halladay started a game they would have drawn 50 000. Even without him starting the games were likely to draw 30 000+
It would have been nice if they did play in Buffalo but that certainly would have lost them money.

We attended games at PNC Park in Pittsburgh during last fall’s G20. Pittsburgh’s police and public safety people did a splendid job keeping the demonstrators from disrupting the G20 or the much more important Dodger-Pirate baseball games. Too bad Toronto panicked instead of importing a couple of Pittsburgh cops, who could have taught them how to keep the peace.

So the argument here is that the Phightins get three extra home games. And the Mutts play the Yankers in a home-and-home every year…? That would give them 84 games in the same city where they play. This has less credence than—help me out here, Craig—Chipper’s(or was it, in fact, also Frenchy?) whining a couple years back about the Phils playing the Jays when the Braves had to play the BooSux every year.

It’s a load of baloney.
A lot of us folks in Toronto were looking forward to having Doc back, even if it was just for a day.
I’m sure Francoeur was just being sympathetic to Torontonians, not thinking about competitive imbalance.

The difference between Pittsburgh and Toronto is that in Toronto the convention center is basically right next to the stadium. In Pittsburgh the convention center is across the river from the stadium. It’d basically be impossible to set up a security perimeter around the G20 in Toronto without including the stadium.

Of course, Francouer forgets that the NYMs play NY & BA 9 times, while Philly gets NY & RS 9 times. The extra 3 games against a .400 team rather than a .600 team will offset the extra 3 games that they get at home.
But the funny part is that Francouer is under the assumption that this will make a difference. I don’t see it.

I would like to know if the G20 summit in Pittsburgh was held in a conference center close to the stadium? Because, here in Toronto the conference center is almost besides the Rogers Center(SkyDome) where they would have played Baseball. Security, parking, etc. thought that would be too much of a distraction and problems.

If it’s still around (I’m too lazy to research), I would’ve liked to see them play where the Expos played. Or somewhere else in Canada. (I’m not a Canadian, or a fan of either team involved. I just like to see baseball come to the people.)